


In Uthenera

by babybutterbeans



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-16
Updated: 2015-05-16
Packaged: 2018-03-30 18:45:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3947668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babybutterbeans/pseuds/babybutterbeans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(inspired by an AU prompt on tumblr)</p>
<p>Garrett Hawke is in a car accident and ends up in a coma. Fenris visits him every day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Uthenera

**Author's Note:**

> Of course, I have absolutely no medical knowledge whatsoever, and i was too lazy to research this, so I apologize for the inaccuracies and whatnot. Or we could just say it's an AU where medical things are never as bad as they sound. :)

                All he could recognize was darkness.

                At first, that’s all it was: quiet darkness, with soft, gentle voices occasionally breaking the silence. Their words were indecipherable, but soothing nonetheless. But eventually, they’d fade away and he’d be alone in the dark again, moderately frightened at his inability to understand his surroundings. What happened? Where is he now?

                Garrett couldn’t tell how much time was passing. The periods of quietness seemed to fly by, but perhaps it was his mind tricking him.

                A voice stood out.

                It was quiet and gentle, yet deep and rough. Garrett didn’t recognize the voice, but he found himself straining to understand it, despite realizing early on that it was hopeless to try to understand. When he spoke, his world seemed to brighten up, light beginning to form in his vision, seeming to twist and swirl and dance with every word he spoke.

                Soon, though, the voice left, and so did the light. He was left in the darkness again.

                Time passed, and the soft, gentle voices continued to come and go. He couldn’t tell how long it’d been, but eventually, the voice returned.

                He struggled to understand the words being said, but to his frustration, he just _couldn’t_. He didn’t recognize the voice, either. It was too deep to belong to Bethany. Besides, she was still away at school. Did she know what happened to him? _Unlikely_ , he finally formed in his thoughts, _I don’t even know what happened to myself._

* * *

 

                As far as he could understand, it had become a routine.

                He’d spend some time in silence, with it being broken occasionally by the strange voices that he’d been hearing all along, and then _the_ voice would return and speak to him for a while.

                He didn’t know how long he’d been like that; stuck alone in his own head. But the strange man’s voice made it almost bearable. Every time he’d speak, Garrett would reach for the voice, struggling and straining to reach it. The light would glow a bit brighter, but he could never reach it. Garrett wasn’t sure if he could cry in his current state, but he was definitely getting close to that.

* * *

 

                The voice spoke, and Garrett _reached_.

                He needed to understand the words he was saying. He needed to find out what had happened to him. He needed to meet this man.

                The world grew brighter around him, and he could almost understand the words being said to him.

                He reached, and suddenly, the world was _too_ bright.

* * *

 

                It was bright, brighter than he thought was even possible. His eyes hurt. _Everything_ hurt.

                Something was wrong. He tried to look around, but he couldn’t move. Tears streamed down his face, overwhelmed at the brightness of the room and the new pain he was feeling.

                His eyes started to adjust. He realized he was in a hospital room. _Well_ , he thinks, _that makes sense._

            There was a man sitting next to his bed, but he quickly stood up and hurried out of the room. Garrett noticed the man’s pure white hair and decided that that had to be the voice he’d been hearing. He wanted to speak, but he couldn’t. The man was gone, and only moments later, doctors and nurses scurried into the room to help him.

* * *

 

            Four days ago, Garrett Hawke woke from the coma he’d been in for two weeks.

            The doctor explained it all to him.

            He’d been in a car accident two weeks ago. It was pretty bad, the doctor told him. _Obviously_ , Garrett thought, with a glace toward his broken left arm.

            It wasn’t easy, though. He was confused, having trouble fully understanding what’d happened. He was disoriented, his mind fighting to fill in the blanks in his memory. He barely remembered the accident itself, or the morning leading up to it. Or most of what happened in the days before the accident. They assured him that it was normal with that severity of head injury. There may be other side-effects as well, they explained.

            He called Bethany on the third day, when he was finally feeling more confident in his memory of the accident, and his ability to carry a conversation.

            She cried, angry at him for getting himself hurt like that. She’d spent the last two weeks terrified of what had happened to him. He just, out of nowhere, stopped answering her calls and texts, and she had no way of getting in touch with him. She was still on the phone with him when she bought a plane ticket out to see him. She couldn’t get one any sooner than a week from then, but he was just relieved knowing he’d see her soon enough.

* * *

 

            He was reading a magazine that the hospital had offered him. Reading was a little harder now, he noticed. Things didn’t process like they did before. But he could tell that he was getting better at it every day. Suddenly, a quiet knock on the door interrupted his reading.

            “Come in,” he called out.

            The door opened slowly, and a stranger poked his head in the door with a shy smile, as if he were afraid to come in any further.

            “Hello,” he said quietly, and Garrett immediately recognized the voice. This is the man that’d been speaking with him during those two weeks. “May I come in?”

            “Yeah, of course!” Garrett said, struggling to sit up a bit straighter. _Holy shit_ , he thought, _please be here to tell me that I have bad amnesia and you’re actually my husband._

            He stepped into the room, shutting the door behind him, and approached the bed where Garrett was laying.

            “My name is Fenris,” he said, reaching out to shake Hawke’s good hand. In the other hand, though, he held a bundle of flowers. Nothing extravagant, almost like he’d just picked them out of someone’s garden and tied them together with a ribbon. “I was driving the other car.”

            “Ohh, shit,” is all Garrett could manage to say. He could remember the accident a little better now, and he knew that it had been his fault. He’d just been driving along, drinking a smoothie, when suddenly, a nice bump in the road caused his smoothie to land directly into his lap. He panicked and must’ve swerved and hit Fenris’s car.

            Fenris raised a brow.

            “Shit, okay, I was drinking a smoothie, and it spilled in my lap, and I panicked.”

            “…so you swerved into oncoming traffic?” he said, clearly fighting a smirk, a little _too_ entertained by his admission.

            “Yes.” Hawke said simply. Of course Fenris would be able to find humor in this; he didn’t look like he’d been hurt at all, which Garrett was extremely thankful for. Hitting an oncoming car and landing himself in a coma was perfectly understandable since he’d caused the accident, but he didn’t want to even think about what he’d do if someone else had gotten hurt because of him.

            “Well, um. At least you’re honest. Here,” he reached out, handing him the flowers, “these are for you. A neighbor picked them out of her garden for me to give to you.”

            “They’re beautiful,” Hawke said, surprisingly breathless. “Thank you. Tell your neighbor I said that, too.” He grinned.

            “She’ll appreciate that.” Fenris was giving him a small smile back.

            “You can sit down, you know. I mean, if you want to stay.”

            Fenris simply nodded and sat down in the chair next to the bed, looking a little uncomfortable.  

            “I doubt you remember,” he said slowly, “but I came here and spoke to you often while you were in your coma.”

            “I do remember!” Hawke almost shouted, excited that his suspicions were finally confirmed. “Why? That accident could’ve killed you.”

            “You didn’t.” Fenris shrugged. “I… felt bad. I wasn’t hurt beyond a couple of bruises, and you were in a coma, with a broken arm and cracked ribs. I heard somewhere a long time ago that talking to someone in a coma can help them. I doubt it’s true, but I wanted to do what I could.” He was staring at the ground, the last sentence barely more than a whisper.

            “I think it did help, though,” Hawke said gently, “I remember hearing you. I couldn’t understand what you were saying, but I wanted to. I think that helped me wake up.”

            Fenris looked up, a faint smile forming on his lips.

            “Well then, I’m glad I did _something_.” He stood up. “I should be on my way. I don’t want to disturb you any further.”

            “No, no! You’re not disturbing me, I swear!” Garrett really, really wanted this man to stay. “I’m bored as hell here, honestly. My sister won’t be here for a few more days, and in case you couldn’t tell, I really like the sound of your voice.”

            Fenris raised his brows and smirked, sitting back down in the seat.

            “If you recall, I already told you my life story. There isn’t much more to talk about.”

            “If _you_ recall,” Garrett started cheerily, “I was in a coma. I didn’t understand a word of what you said.”

That earned him an actual laugh.

           

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by this prompt:  
> http://awful-aus.tumblr.com/post/119023716227/submitted-au-185
> 
> this ended up being like 700 words longer than i expected oops


End file.
